After the most controversial comic of 2023, Wells and co. bounce back with an Amazing Spider-Man volume that stabilizes the title, but still manages to be just annoying enough that it’s not fully back in the swing of things.
McGuiness, Menyz, Marvel comics
My main problem is that Wells completely fails every time he tries to write about Kamala, and while it’s not often in this volume, the few times he tries to wring any meaning out of her is the worst kind of messy. The whole death-and-quick-turnaround-rebirth reeks of editorial mandates, but Wells still whiffs on execution time and time again, and at this point it’s simply a series of unforced errors. Then, of course, the backlash on the internet means the errors are read as stupidly as one can expect, so the whole thing feels even worse because it’s both blown out of proportion and misunderstood.
It’s an awful cycle perpetuated by Zeb Wells’ refusal to figure out how to tell a story good with her, in the midst of an ongoing story that he’s telling really well, actually.
McGuiness, Menyz, Marvel comics
The vast majority of this volume is good Spider-Man comics, however. McGuiness is welcomed back for an arc that’s heavy on humor, which is great in most places, but doesn’t work against the already bad grieving Kamala’s death parts. Still, McGuiness drawing Otto, his new tiny octopuses, and JJJ is worth it all, so it’s fun to see how different the book is when he’s drawing it. It’s not that Wells doesn’t do goofy or funny stuff, but McGuiness brings it out of him in really good and fun ways.
The wedding/Gang War setup issue is also in here, and…it’s fine, basically. The JRJR pages are fantastic; I love to see him draw Tombstone (just love to see Tombstone in general, probably), and I’m happy the sham relationship between Black Cat and Spider-Man is DEAD. However, it also brings to mind how much time the series has wasted on the two of them when we could have had anything actually good instead. It ends up being a mixed bag, along with all the other non-Wells stuff in the volume, like the Jackpot (terrible concept, terrible costume design) teaser.
McGuiness, Menyz, Marvel comics
Really though, those complaints are minimal, especially when they make up so little of the volume, and Wells is so good at writing the main bits. Putting Otto, Peter, and Norman in a room together, and comparing and contrasting their guilt, pride, failures, and history is really a master stroke, and the execution is all there. Even when McGuiness is pushing Otto to the height of cartoonishness, his anger at Norman still seems reasonable, and their history feels lived in a way that most other writers can’t quite convince me of.
Beyond that, the ongoing story is still really solid, and all the through lines make me feel like we’re gonna end up somewhere good here. This series is interrogating Spider-Man’s history as a character and what it means to be Peter Parker and his supporting cast after the 60 years of publication, and it’s doing so while also just being an entertaining superhero comic. As long as it continues doing the latter—and even if it stops for one issue in order to be the most controversial comic of 2023—I’ll be on board.
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